When I was 13 years old, and supportive adults asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would enthusiastically blurt out, "I want to be an ecologist!"
Some French colleagues of mine recently discovered if you take cows up to the alpine pastures along the ski trails during or just after rain, they, not surprisingly, leave hoof prints.
Willie Nelson once sang that he only missed his ex-lover on three days: yesterday, today and tomorrow. This simple division of time works as well for invasive species as it does for heartbreak.
When people think about climate change, the first thing that usually comes to mind is blazing hot summer days, severe droughts, or super-size hurricanes. But climate change is actually more significant in winter than in summer.
Most of us learned in school that plants produce oxygen and consume carbon dioxide, while animals (like us) consume organic matter (such as carrots and burritos) and oxygen and produce carbon dioxide.
The recent hacking of e-mails at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia Center — one of the world's foremost institutions for the study of climate change — offers a disconcerting view of how modern science is done.
Last month's news that the invasive silver carp had crossed the electric barrier in a canal in Chicago ― and were only a short day's swim from invading Lake Michigan ― caused outcries from the outdoor community and tourist industry across the Great Lakes region.
Few of us think about the state of the atmosphere until it fails to provide us with a hospitable environment. More often than not, human activities are behind atmospheric ills.
The lion's share (more than 90 percent) of the organic matter in the Hudson River comes from the landscape surrounding the river, rather than from plants and algae that live in the river.
The Gulf of Mexico is home to a dead zone roughly the size of New Jersey. Inhospitable waters are caused by excess nitrogen that originates from distant Mid- western agribusinesses.
During the summer months, the Cary Institute’s campus bustles with educational activity. From campers getting their first introduction to climate change while exploring our property, to undergraduates conducting research projects under the mentorship of Cary Institute scientists—our staff is committed to nurturing ecological understanding in learners of all ages.
Imagine hiking through a forest on the Cary Institute's 2,000-acre property and wondering why the hemlock trees grow just in certain areas or whether the annual influx of tent caterpillars causes long-lasting damage.
Accidentally imported from Asia into the eastern U.S. in the 1950s, the adelgid spread through the mid-Atlantic States and reached our area several years ago.
If you were to pick up the Appalachian Trail in New York State, and hike 600 miles south, after passing through some of the nation's most scenic vistas, you'd reach some very disturbing topography. Treeless hills rising to a flat top—much like the arid mesas of the desert Southwest—are separated by valleys filled with broken rock and barren streams. Welcome to mountaintop removal coal mining.
In July, Dutchess County celebrated Watershed Awareness Month. Throughout the region, educational activities highlighted the role that watersheds play in protecting the health of freshwater resources
“Would Henry Hudson even recognize the Hudson River if he sailed up it today?” In this four-part series, Dave Strayer describes how much the river has been transformed over time.
For more than 100 years, New York has been home to one of the world's best-kept conservation secrets. At 6 million acres, the Adirondack Park is the largest protected area in the contiguous United States.
June was rainy! According to the Cary Institute's Environmental Monitoring Program, it rained 19 out of 30 days. The first few days of July have also been marked by intermittent rains and flash flooding.
There is a vast reserve of natural gas in New York State, buried thousands of feet below the surface in a geologic formation called the Marcellus Shale.
As we commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's historic voyage up the Hudson River, it is prudent to learn what we can from the past in order to maintain and improve this irreplaceable natural resource for future generations.
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